Cape Town: Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis mourns with the family of slain Manenberg, where a five-year-old was killed in a gang crossfire and welcomed a quick arrest by South African Police Service (SAPS).
Recently, the City of Cape Town condemned the shooting of a little boy aged five in a gang crossfire, enrouted to a local tuckshop with his father. Two women also sustained injuries from fired shots. The city completely supported the victims to assist SAPS to pursue justice in wake of the shooting.
City of Cape Town’s Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that the city is mourning together with the family living in Manenberg, identified as a five-year-old ‘Ameer Abrahams’.
According to the Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, the City of Cape Town mourned together on Thursday, Jan 09, 2025 with Abrahams family. Following the passing of little Ameer, Lewis expressed, “We feel the extreme pain as being parents ourselves, we stand with the family in demanding justice for the young life lost in such horrific circumstances.
The Mayor added further that the City of Cape Town will continue to offer full support to South African Police Service (SAPS) and will welcome the swift arrests made with the intention to pursue murder charges.
Considering the fatal incident, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Safety and Security – Alderman JP Smith explained that the City of Cape Town team will continue to assist SAPS and the SSIU has passed on the information received from Manenberg residents.
Reportedly, they will be monitoring the court proceedings following the arrests of three suspects. The City of Cape Town is ready to assist SAPS whenever requested for investigations into gang, gun and drug crime through the investments in safety technologies. The investigation will include gunshot detection in the Manenberg area and others such as CCTV, Automatic Number Plate Recognition and eye-in-the-sky aerial surveillance.
Notably, in total 114 illegal guns were confiscated by the authorities in Manenberg and the adjacent Philippi or Hanover Park precinct over a three-month period according to the most recent crime stats for Q2 – 2024.
With both stations among the highest levels of gun confiscations, provincially in part due to gunshot detection technology and rapid response assistance to SAPS the case is still under investigation and the criminals are under search.